All-Podcast-Secrets

Social bookmarking tools evolved from a way to better organize your favorite URLs into an entire ecosystem based on sharing and discussing the rapidly evolving content on the World Wide Web. The unusually named website Del.icio.us is widely credited with starting the trend, earning it a spot in Yahoo!’s portfolio of web services. In late 2005, Larry Halff hired the respected design team from Happy Cog to take some of the core ideas from Del.icio.us even further.

The result was Ma.gnolia , a site that many of its users describe as a broader social experiment than other social bookmarking websites. In addition to tracking common links, Ma.gnolia allows users to organize themselves into groups, where members can easily monitor collective activity and offer commentary on the latest bookmarks added to the service.

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From: google@perrymarshall.com
Subject: Straight Talk about the “Information Business”
Date: March 28, 2007 11:19:41 AM GMT-04:00

There are few things with more surface level appeal than selling information, especially selling it on the Internet. You’ve heard the pitch: “How to sell Ebooks, MP3s and videos on your website 24/7/365 with 95% profit margins and no customer service headaches, sitting on the beach eating bon-bons… and the really cool part is when your laptop goes ‘cha-ching’ every time a sale is made.”

Reality is no match for a good fantasy, is it?

There is definitely an element of truth in this particular fantasy; there are also some less-obvious practicalities. The information business is great for some people. It would drive others into the asylum. Some of my own thoughts about the info biz:

1. Don’t get into the info biz “just because” the margins are high or you can make a lot of dough or whatever. Actually the #1 reason to be selling information is one that the seminars and biz-op people tend to barely mention: That you actually do know something that is valuable to other people and you have a commitment to delivering accurate, useful knowledge to them.

Personally I think everyone who teaches others will be judged on the quality of what they’ve taught and that’s not a responsibility to be taken lightly.

If you are up to that task, then the info business could be very good for you.

To that I would add that most people know things that are extremely useful to other people, they usually just don’t realize it, and they don’t know how to package that knowledge in a way that can be sold. But it is possible to find out how.

2. All the people I know who are good info marketers have a genuine gift and desire to teach and empower other people. And I’ve seen a lot of strange info businesses: aside from the well known common types, ie “business gurus” and such, there are others in completely different fields. Videos of motorcycle racing events and 4×4’s. Instructional videos for musicians. Foreign languages. Guides to building and repairing and buying and selling various kinds of specialized merchandise. Advice on every known form of investment. Instructions for solving every imaginable kind of physical, psychological or health challenge.

3. The world has an insatiable appetite for genuinely useful information, regardless of the topic. More knowledge builds on existing knowledge, endlessly. The market for information never goes away.

4. Reality Check: High margins and low product delivery and fulfillment costs are offset by high cost of acquiring a customer. Some people should just sell physical products; in many ways they’re much easier to sell, just harder to fulfill and service. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. That’s why I think that if you’re going to be in the info business, it should be something you love to do.

5. Can you run your business from the beach? Absolutely, you can. You can run an information business from anywhere. Northern Mongolia. Or parts of Western Nebraska. But is it a “walk away income”? No it is not. It is going to require a level of ongoing attention.

6. That said, I know quite a few info marketers who make low 6-figure incomes (typically in strange and obscure niches) whose businesses are highly automated and require relatively little day-to-day attention. In many cases they’re so specialized they’re also relatively immune from competition.

7. I also know quite a few info marketers whose incomes rival those of, say, presidents of large universities and Fortune 1000 CEOs - high six to low seven figures - who work their buns off and love what they do. Their lives have a LOT less politics than Fortune 1000 CEO’s. And… compared to the politics of a university(!) ANY info business is surely utopia. (No amount of money would persuade ME to be the president of Stanford.)

8. Wanna be a cat on a hot tin roof? If your topic is one that changes all the time, welcome to the club. You can’t sit still for long. But hey… if you’re a fidgety guy who can’t sit still anyway, that’s just fine. (It’s not like your wife will let you chase her around the house ALL day long.)

9. But if it’s all about lifestyle for you, pick an obscure niche where things aren’t in a constant state of flux. I know info products whose content and sales copy have barely changed in 10 years.

10. Merely delivering a passive information product (i.e. course, manual, video) has income limitations. A considerable amount of additional growth is possible if you’re also willing to offer memberships, coaching programs, consulting and seminars. The nice thing is from one month to the next you can decide what you want to offer. And if you need to take the summer mostly off, you can.

Perhaps the #1 thing that keeps people from moving forward in the information business is not having a product ready to go. If you can relate to that, Bob Serling may have a solution. He’s doing a workshop that guarantees you’ll create your own hot-selling information product in just 6 weeks. He’ll personally guide you, prod you, and support you every step of the way.

He also guarantees the results of the workshop.

I’ve sent other students to Bob’s workshops and love ‘em. One of my Roundtable members, James Rivas, took a class from Bob last fall and just raved about it. Bob’s not a hypester, he’s a laid back, straight-up, business-to-business guy.

For the info products workshop, enrollment is limited to just 40 people because of the time it takes for Bob to work with you one on one. If you’ve ever wanted to get all the benefits that comes from having your own information product, you’d be well advised to investigate this. Check out the details by clicking the link below. But don’t wait because I fully expect all 40 spots to be locked up quickly.

Regards,

From: google@perrymarshall.com
Subject: A Strange Rumor, yet Believable

Date: March 21, 2007 12:41:06 PM GMT-04:00

Five years ago, not long after I escaped from the
Dilbert cube with big check in hand and high hopes
for charting my course to independence, I got a
phone call that changed my life.

Ken McCarthy was on the other line, congratulating me
on letter I wrote that was published in Dan Kennedy’s
print newsletter.

Next thing I knew, my fledgling Perry Marshall
& Associates web site got it’s biggest spike of
opt-ins ever up to that date… from Ken.

Then Ken was on the phone with me, modestly
but firmly suggesting I attend the System Seminar.

“Perry, I think this would be a very good thing
for you to do right now. And if you come and
it’s not, I have no trouble refunding your tuition.
We do that for everybody.”

I wasn’t sure what more I was going to learn
about the Internet from Ken’s seminar - I am
a gear-head after all - but I figured “what the
heck?”

I remember being in a hotel room in Des Moines,
Iowa, on the last day registration deadline, trying to decide
whether to go or not. I registered for the System seminar
on a Holiday Inn WebTV and booked my trip.

That may very well have been the best “what
the heck” call I’ve ever made.

At my first System training (this was 2002), I was
introduced to the magical world of pay-per-click
(PPC) advertising by Jon Keel, one of Ken’s faculty
members. It was like looking behind the curtain of
the Internet for the first time.

All the stuff that’s so common now - using keyword
research to identify markets, using PPC to test
business ideas and ad copy, even “long tail” keyword
buying strategies - was laid out of us in living
technicolor.

By coincidence, Google launched AdWords
the same weekend of my first System Seminar
and I made the decision to figure it out…another
good call.

A year and a half later, I was sharing what I learned
in front of a System Seminar audience in San Francisco.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to open up the vault on all my
hard won research, but Ken suggested that positioning
myself as an AdWords expert could be lucrative.

Let’s just say, he was more than a little right.

Now, I’ve got my own educational juggernaut
and last year put on my first seminar.

I loved it. I also hated it.

I LOVED bringing a whole bunch of really smart people
together in one room to focus on making more money
online… in a funny way I even enjoyed being screamed at
by a heckler on Sunday morning.

But I HATED the logistical nightmare. Until you’ve
put on an event for several hundred people, you can’t
begin to understand.

If you want the picture, just think of the typical hotel staff
as a combination of the Three Stooges, Al Capone,
and the a bunch of police officers playing cards in a
dark smoky room. (That would be the security staff.
Retired police officers.)

They torture you for days with mind bending
incompetence and then find ways to add massive
extra charges to your bill every time someone gets
a coffee refill.

Anyway, somehow Ken manages to pull off the
System Seminar every year and this gave us
both an idea.

*What if we embedded a Perry Marshall seminar
INSIDE the annual System Seminar?*

As you may know, the System Seminar has
blossomed into a true Super Conference.

This year’s event will have twenty-five
specialized workshops and even more
faculty members.

I’ll be running five of the sessions… we affectionatly
call it the Planet Perry track.

My line up:

* Me on AdWords (the talk I give now is much, much
different than even one year ago)

* Ari Galper on why everything you’ve been told
about selling is wrong

* Glenn Livingston on “shooting fish in a barrel”
market research

* David Bullock on how to use tracking and
testing to explode your profitability

* The grand round up (or “Stump the Chump”
in which you get to ask the Planet Perry
All-Stars any question you want.)

And, if for some reason, there five sessions
aren’t enough for you, there are TWENTY other
sessions to choose from at System 2007.

Here’s the deal:

* The event is in Chicago, IL (easy to reach from
just about any place on earth) and a stone’s throw
from O’Hare International airport.

* The dates: April 27 through 29.

* The ticket price: $2,995.00 (but you can
save $700 off that if you act now.)

The even is already 70% sold out and some
major league affiliates are going to launch
their campaigns soon, so I can’t guarantee
stragglers a seat.

But what I can guarantee is this:

If you are serious about Internet marketing,
the System Seminar is going to rock your
world.

I’ve personally never missed one since
that first one I attended way back in 2002.

If there’s only one Internet event, you’re going to
attend this year, this is the one to take a serious
look at.

More information here:

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